"Foolishly devoted parents since ancient times,
Who has seen truly filial sons and grandsons?"
"This...." Netero's brows furrowed deeply, as he abruptly turned to Roy and asked, "Where did you read this haiku?"
{Note: Haiku, as a form of short poetry, is not uncommon in the Hunter World. A well-known haiku is "Basho," which once teamed up with Kurapika and Melody to protect Neon during the Yorknew City arc. His Nen ability is known as [Wandering Haiku Master]: By writing haiku on a card, he can manifest the content into reality.
Due to its overly powerful mechanism, there are stringent restrictions on this ability: First, it is bound by the user's own Nenryoku, and the potency is tied to the literary quality of the haiku. If the lines are not exquisite, the effect is greatly diminished;
Second, a single haiku can only achieve one functionality. Once used, the card is burned. For instance, he once wrote a haiku about "burning things being thrown away," which ultimately only set a chair on fire, showcasing the limitation of his ability.}
"Honor", "Gold and silver", "A beautiful wife", "Sons and grandsons"... In just a short haiku, all pursuits of life are encapsulated and bluntly exposed before the world in a direct and crude manner... Netero gazed deeply at Roy, almost certain... a person of his age couldn't have written this...
However, it's not the young... could it be the "old ones"?
Netero diverted a glance, remotely peering through the misty light of the mind, towards the dim room in the ancient castle of the Zoldyck Family. Sharing the same [Enhancement] ability is Maha, "simple-minded" and "physically adept," clearly not someone fond of reading...
"Maha, this haiku is rather melancholic..." At ten in the morning, a clock in the corner reverberated with a "dong~" sound...
On the first floor of the Zoldyck Family's ancient castle, in that dim room, with curtains drawn, a vague Nen emerged from Maha's body, forming the likeness of Betty Zoldyck, who leaned on Maha's lap, through the thick walls and lush forest, casting a melancholy gaze towards the butler's villa on the mountainside... Her little hands unknowingly gripped tightly by Maha beneath her...
The old man, bone-dry, looked far older than Netero,
He opened his half-baked eyes and chuckled, "Naturally, the person who wrote this haiku has seen through life and human nature, thus feeling disinterested, devoid of fun, and consequently, tormented..."
Betty Zoldyck leaned down, nestled on Maha's modest chest, nodding in agreement and said, "You say, where did Roy come across this?"
"In a dream." Across the Kukuroo Mountain, the grandfather and grandson seemed to have a tacit understanding, speaking simultaneously.
Amidst Netero's age-ridden eyes, a sudden gleam flashed, as he chuckled to Roy, "It seems your Nen ability is related to 'Dreams',"
Recalling Jager's Nen ability [Game of the Dead]... The old man couldn't help but lament, "It's so reminiscent, truly reminiscent, both are Conjuration, equally imaginative. If your Grandpa Jager were still alive now, seeing you, he'd surely be very pleased."
Suddenly, Netero seemed to see Jager's shadow in Roy,
Not only did his appearance inherit the superior genes of the Zoldyck Family with some resemblance, but even their hair color bore little distinction, except for the glassy golden sheen at Roy's hair tips.
Yet Jager is Jager, and Roy is Roy... Regardless of Netero's thoughts, Roy held onto his identity, casually fishing out a swimming fish from the heart's lake, without a glance, said to Netero, "Who said Grandpa Jager is dead? I saw him not long ago."
Hmm?!
Netero paused, suddenly the sun... with a "rumble~," the [Buddha Hall] behind him collapsed unexpectedly due to excessive emotional turmoil, together with the two hundred-armed Buddha statue, whose smiling face was shattered with a "crack~," buried instantly under the debris!
"Boy, do you know what you're saying?!" Without waiting for Netero to kick open the stool and rise!
A figure, faster, more agile, more domineering, accompanied by thousands of purple-black thunderbolts, flashed towards Roy, instantly arriving beside him, pinning him between Netero, forming a left-right sandwich!
At this moment, the left was thunderous, the right was the ruins buried with Buddha... Roy only felt himself like a lone skiff, rashly venturing into the ocean, constantly threatened to be capsized by any sudden waves... He lightly discarded, throwing the fish he just caught back into the heart's lake...
As if sensing the tense atmosphere on the shore, the fish widened its dead eyes, swiftly swiped its tail, and sped away... leaving Roy alone, holding a wooden stick as a fishing rod, quietly swallowing and saying, "Don't look at me like that, I just, during the day of paying respects to Grandpa Jager, through the modified Demon Eye, vaguely saw his figure, as for...."
"Whether it's him, requires further verification...."
"Verification my foot," Maha's temper flared up, directly blurting out crude words, "It's definitely him, besides him having ties to that big eye, no one else!"
As emotions fluctuated, Maha's mental projection abruptly unveiled a glimpse of its prominence... In the state of [Heart Drop·Punch Listening] X [Heart Drop·Sword Listening], all [Mental Essence] of people can be viewed, leveraging this to manifest it through "Nen," thus developing their unique "Nen ability."
Maha stood closely by Roy, his emotions stirred, behind him a slowly unveiling celestial scene appeared.
In that elevated celestial scene, thunder roared, vaguely several dozen purple-black electric dragons cruised amidst the dark, fearsome clouds, either revealing prominent features or extending sharp claws, or trailing long dragon whiskers, roaring upwards with a dragon's roar, shaking the heavens and earth... Roy only felt ear-piercing pain as he looked deeper into the thunder....
Only to see, below those cloud-suspended electric dragons and serpentine lightning... a grand royal court settled....
The royal court in ruins far surpasses anything Netero's mind could conjure, a casually fallen stone pillar as tall as the colossal trees Roy once saw on the Dark Continent... The young man took a deep breath, looking further inside... a royal courtyard almost submerged by sprawling grass, mottled stone walls, blood-stained armor, discarded arms scattered freely on the ground... paved and extended all the way to the grand stone steps before the royal palace...
Roy gazed abstractedly, mind and intention aligning, bolstered by [Heart Drop·Sword Listening], maintaining a state of spiritual out-of-body experience, gliding lightly over the fallen stone walls, scattered arms, and blood-stained armor, then placing a foot on the stone steps, slowly ascending until his head, abruptly emerging from the final stone step...
Roy's eyes, burning with "sunshine," suddenly widened... As the view expanded instantly, he saw the throne, and the men and women sitting on either side under the throne....
'Are these Grandpa's former subordinates?'
His silver hair shone with glassy gold at the trailing ends, slightly swaying as the youth ascended the steps....
Roy scanned swiftly, quickly identifying those he, through dreams, once saw in Grandpa's Unconscious Domain... such as Brook Sell, Sibleus, and... his own great-grandmother...
As a vague realization dawned in the young man, the first thought that surfaced was a sentence....
There's three deaths in a person's life,
The first death is biological, the gradual loss of bodily functions as organs falter, the heart ceases, breathing halts, and the brain shuts down, signifying the end of life;
The second death is the death of social identity, when one's name, stories, influence are no longer recalled in society, marking the end of social relations;
The third death... is the oblivion of spirit or memory, when one's spirit is wholly forgotten by the world, never again to be remembered as having existed, signifying the ultimate disappearance of individual existence.
Yet clearly, some have died, yet remain persistently alive in Grandpa's heart....
Just as Roy can see them,
They can also see Roy,
Suddenly, countless gazes poured like an ocean, overwhelming Roy....